St. Paul, MN - Low-income people from the Twin Cities and Duluth came to the governor’s mansion, July 19, to serve an eviction notice. “It is time for Pawlenty to leave the mansion and it is time for Pawlenty to leave the governors office. We say: Minnesota’s poor cannot take four more years,” declared Tracy Furney of the Minnesota Welfare Rights Coalition.

“The only people who have fared well under Pawlenty are the rich. What have the rich seen under Pawlenty’s rule? The rich have seen more and more and more money in their pockets, billions of dollars in permanent tax breaks, corporate tax loopholes that save them hundreds of millions a year. Under Pawlenty, the rich have seen their riches grow and grow, while the rest of us have seen our lives destroyed,” said MNWRC’s Virginia Weldon.

Despite the rain, protesters chanted, “Minnesota’s poor can’t take four more!” as they forced dozens of soggy signs on the beleaguered guards behind the fence. Some of the signs included enlarged copies of actual eviction summons the women had received, complete with sheriff’s seals.

Sandee Heywood, a woman on oxygen, stepped away from her walker and delivered a five-foot eviction notice (created from a papered-over 2002 Pawlenty campaign sign) over the top of the gate to the mansion’s guards.